TWO FINE CHAIN SAW SHARPENERS

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

You can keep your own chain saw cutting fast and true with either of these . . .

The introduction to the chapter on how to sharpen chain saws in Barnacle Parp's Chain Saw Guide (see the editor's note on the following page for access information) includes an anecdote about the author's buddy—a character called Three-Legged Muskrat—who insists on filing his saw chains by hand. Parp concludes: "Muskrat is a real old-fashioned expert who has worked with sharp steel all his life. When he is finished sharpening a chain by hand, it's almost as perfect as a chain that was machine sharpened . . . ."

Now if you've ever tried to lay a file to a dull chain with nothing more than your eyesight and fingertips to guide you, you know that Muskrat must have been a near magician with a file. And you're also well aware—if you've ever tried hand-sharpening and failed-just how miserable working with an improperly sharpened chain saw can be. Such a device will move through a log slowly, may buck mightily, and invariably makes a curved cut that jams the guide bar in the middle of the timber you're trying to sever.

No doubt about it, there's no substitute for a chain that's been honed to the correct angle and has had its cutters properly profiled and trimmed to equal length. Unfortunately, most amateur lumberjacks are at a loss to determine how to get a correctly sharpened chain . . . without making regular time-consuming visits (at $2.50 to $4.00 apiece) to the local saw shop to have the job done.

We began looking for the answer to that question several months ago, and gathered a representative selection of the locally available do-it-yourself chain saw sharpeners. Through the past summer and into the fall, we put the dozen or so contraptions to work keeping the saws used at the Eco-Village and by MOTHER's staff members in tiptop shape. During that time we dulled a passel of chains (they were subjected to about every job short of ditch digging or wire cutting), and we've come to some definite conclusions about what does, and doesn't, make an effective chain saw sharpener.

RUB YOUR BELLY AND PAT YOUR FOREHEAD AT THE SAME TIME

The complexity of the task that a chain sharpening device must accomplish is formidable, and the job is made even more difficult by the fact that the device has to be able to perform many of the different functions at the same time. First, and most obvious, the tool must precisely establish the proper angle for the cutters in relation to the direction of chain travel. Most saw chain (known as chipper-type) is sharpened to a 35° angle, but some chisel types are designed to use a 30° cut. However, many experienced saw owners prefer to use a chain trimmed to less than the recommended angle, in order to reduce the strain on the operator during extended periods of sawing . . . or to perform special tasks, such as ripping.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print